Athens · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Cheap, chaotic and walkable — one of the last European capitals a backpacker can still afford.
Koukaki and Psyrri
Koukaki is quiet, cheap and ten minutes from the Acropolis; Psyrri is the party-hostel quarter, loud until three most nights.
What a day costs
About €40–65 a day, roughly $45–75: dorm €15–28, souvlaki and bakery food €10–18, metro and a site ticket €12–20.
Getting around cheap
A ninety-minute metro ticket costs a little over a euro, with day and five-day passes; the X95 bus runs to the airport all night.
Free by day
Filopappou and Areopagus hills give the Acropolis view without the ticket; the guard changes hourly at Syntagma. State sites go free on some winter Sundays.
Where travellers meet
Monastiraki Square is where the free walking tours gather and where everyone ends up afterwards on a rooftop with a €4 beer.